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Full-Text Articles in Materials Science and Engineering

Hdd Dataset: Optimising Retrofitted Insulation For Irish Residential Building Walls, Rakshit D. Muddu, Aimee Byrne, Anthony James Robinson Jan 2023

Hdd Dataset: Optimising Retrofitted Insulation For Irish Residential Building Walls, Rakshit D. Muddu, Aimee Byrne, Anthony James Robinson

Datasets

In this study, a thermal-economic analysis was conducted to determine the optimum insulation thickness of retrofitted insulation walls in different regions in Ireland. This was based on the Heating Degree Day method (HDD). This dataset contains optimum insulation thickness, payback period, cost savings and carbon emission for all 25 counties in the Republic of Ireland


Fem Eem Dataset: Optimising Retrofitted Insulation For Irish Residential Building Walls, Rakshit D. Muddu, Aimee Byrne, Anthony Robinson Dr. Jan 2023

Fem Eem Dataset: Optimising Retrofitted Insulation For Irish Residential Building Walls, Rakshit D. Muddu, Aimee Byrne, Anthony Robinson Dr.

Datasets

A large number of combinations of Irish wall types, insulation materials, and heating fuel types were produced to compare the multiple variables which influence Optimal Insulation Thickness values. The total cost (TC) and carbon emission (CE) at optimum insulation thickness (OIT) for all combinations of insulation material and three types of fuel are considered. The dataset presents OIT for solid wall, cavity wall and cavity block wall types located in Monaghan, Dublin, and Kerry.


The Living Breakwaters Pdr Efforts Econcrete Resource Analysis, Guianina Ferrari, Shervon Stephens, Calvin O. Walters Jr. Dec 2022

The Living Breakwaters Pdr Efforts Econcrete Resource Analysis, Guianina Ferrari, Shervon Stephens, Calvin O. Walters Jr.

Publications and Research

On October 29, 2012, Superstorm Sandy impacted 443,000 people and caused nearly $19 billion (about $58 per person in the US) worth of damage within New York City. As part of the New York City infrastructure reparation plan, the Living Breakwaters project in Tottenville addressed coastal resilience, allocating $100M of public funds to a series of artificial breakwaters by the southwest coast of Staten Island. Each breakwater is constructed and designed to mitigate water flow in storm events. ECOncrete, a primary element of the breakwater, is a specialty cast cementitious product that is marine organism-friendly that encourages biocalcification and photosynthesis. …


The Living Breakwaters Pdr Efforts: Conceptual Scheduling, Calvin O. Walters Jr. May 2022

The Living Breakwaters Pdr Efforts: Conceptual Scheduling, Calvin O. Walters Jr.

Publications and Research

On October 29, 2012, Superstorm Sandy caused nearly $19 billion in damages in New York City including 69,000 residential units across the five boroughs. This disaster precipitated a post-disaster-rebuilding (PDR) project including roughly $4.2 billion in a Community Development Block Grant allocated towards PDR projects. A portion of the grant was used to construct a living breakwater in Tottenville, Staten Island, consisting of a resiliency approach to risk reduction through erosion prevention, wave energy attenuation, and enhancement of ecosystems and social resiliency to improve resistance to storms for the community of Tottenville. The ridges of each breakwater are designed with …


Exploration Of The Sludge Biodiesel Pathway, Zachary Christman May 2021

Exploration Of The Sludge Biodiesel Pathway, Zachary Christman

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Wastewater sludge is an overlooked source of fat, oil, and grease (FOG) that could be converted into biodiesel. The United States produces about 8 million tons of sludge per year. The disposal cost for this amount of sludge is about 2 billion dollars. The widespread availability and low cost of sludge compared to other biodiesel raw materials make it an economical choice for a renewable fuel. Using sludge as a raw material can produce 25 to 30 mg per gram of fatty acid methyl ester (FAME); the main component of biodiesel. Sludge biodiesel has the potential of transforming a portion …


Development Of A Separation Solution For Braided Polyester/Polyolefin Ropes And Lines, Stefan Fricke, Robbie Huton Apr 2021

Development Of A Separation Solution For Braided Polyester/Polyolefin Ropes And Lines, Stefan Fricke, Robbie Huton

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The following report summarizes the research performed for the project sponsored by Net Your Problem. The research focuses on using depolymerization reactions as a method of separating polyester from polyolefin material in braided lines commonly used in the fishing and crabbing industries. Currently the mixed fibers in these lines are too comingled to be separated by conventional mechanical recycling methods. The glycolysis reactions were chosen to take advantage of the very different solubilities of polyester and polyolefins. Ethelene glycol breaks down the PET into oligomers and BHET monomer while leaving the polyolefins unreacted. The products of the reaction can then …


Optimisation Of Retrofit Wall Insulation: An Irish Case Study, Rakshit D. Muddu, D M. Gowda, Anthony James Robinson, Aimee Byrne Jan 2021

Optimisation Of Retrofit Wall Insulation: An Irish Case Study, Rakshit D. Muddu, D M. Gowda, Anthony James Robinson, Aimee Byrne

Articles

Ireland has one of the highest rates of emissions per capita in the world and its residential sector is responsible for approximately 10% of total national CO2 emissions. Therefore, reducing the CO2 emissions in this sector will play a decisive role in achieving EU targets of reducing emissions by 40% by 2030. To better inform decisions regarding retrofit of the existing building stock, this study proposes Optimum Insulation Thicknesses (OIT) for typical walls in 25 regions in Ireland. The calculation of OIT includes annual heat energy expenditure, CO2 emissions, and material payback period. The approach taken is based on Heating …


Pollution Prevention Via Recovery Of Cerium (Iv) Oxide In Optics Company, Eugene Park, William Gallagher, Sydor Optics, Flint Creek Resources May 2020

Pollution Prevention Via Recovery Of Cerium (Iv) Oxide In Optics Company, Eugene Park, William Gallagher, Sydor Optics, Flint Creek Resources

Articles

Pollution prevention methods were applied at an optics manufacturer in an effort to improve recovery of a valuable polishing component, cerium oxide (ceria), 77% of which was lost to dragout and sewer discharge. Centrifugation and microfiltratiion were evaluated to develop a process that would increase recovery of used ceria, which would then be sent back to the ceria supplier for reclamation and reuse. Full-scale implementation included a high-speed centrifuge that operates continuously with a microfiltration system through recirculation in a single process tank. Sydor Optics has improved ceria recovery from 23% to 48%, saving thousands of dollars annually.


A Novel Self-Healing System: Towards A Sustainable Porous Asphalt, Shi Xu, Xueyan Liu, Amir Tabakovic, Erik Schlangen Mar 2020

A Novel Self-Healing System: Towards A Sustainable Porous Asphalt, Shi Xu, Xueyan Liu, Amir Tabakovic, Erik Schlangen

Articles

Self-healing asphalt, aimed to produce a sustainable asphalt pavement using green technology, has been studied in the past two decades. Technologies including encapsulated rejuvenator and induction heating have been proposed, demonstrated in the laboratory, and gradually evaluated in field application. This paper looks into the synergy effect of the above two technologies, where induction heating serves as the asphalt damage repair mechanism, requiring just 2 min heating time and encapsulated rejuvenator will replenish (rejuvenate) aged asphalt binder and reinstate bitumen’s healing ability. Moreover, the increased temperature from induction heating could in turn accelerate the diffusion process of rejuvenator into aged …


Stretchable Methyl Ammonium Lead Iodide Perovskite Solar Cells For Photovoltaic And Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting, William Tait May 2018

Stretchable Methyl Ammonium Lead Iodide Perovskite Solar Cells For Photovoltaic And Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting, William Tait

University Scholar Projects

The goal of this work was to fabricate an inverse planar perovskite solar cell (PSC) that was stretchable in one dimension and completely solution-processible. Perovskites are a material that have attracted much attention in recent years due to their appealing characteristics, such as being photovoltaic and piezoelectric. PSCs have been the focus of many studies in the solar cell area, as they are solution-processible and have shown high efficiencies relative to the amount of time they have been studied. Fabricating a PSC on a stretchable substrate would be beneficial, as a bendable, stretchable PSC would likely have more applications than …


Compact Facility For Testing Steady And Transient Thermal Performance Of Building Walls, Aimee Byrne, Gerard Byrne, Anthony Robinson Jan 2017

Compact Facility For Testing Steady And Transient Thermal Performance Of Building Walls, Aimee Byrne, Gerard Byrne, Anthony Robinson

Articles

Energy efficiency retrofit of buildings represents a key effort in reducing EU energy demand by 20% by 2020. However, predictions tend to overestimate savings by large percentages. The shortfall in savings can be attributed to incorrect predictive techniques, comfort takeback along with other behavioural and workmanship variables. Common predictive techniques related to heat loss tend to be based on the U-value of the building envelope. This paper presents the design of a more straightforward and compact version of the traditional Hot-Box apparatus (measures U-value) which instead determines the thermal resistance of samples of building envelope. U-value includes the need to …


Miss Lonesome: Old Boats Past Their Prime, Garth Woodruff Aug 2016

Miss Lonesome: Old Boats Past Their Prime, Garth Woodruff

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Preliminary Investigation Into The Rate Of Carbonation Of Concrete Blocks Under Normal Production Yard Conditions, Aimee Byrne, Eanna Nolan Jan 2016

Preliminary Investigation Into The Rate Of Carbonation Of Concrete Blocks Under Normal Production Yard Conditions, Aimee Byrne, Eanna Nolan

Conference papers

The release of CO2 from calcination during the manufacture of cement can be partially or fully offset by the CO2 it naturally absorbs during its lifetime. This paper reports results from a preliminary investigation into the rate of carbonation in concrete blocks stacked in a production yard over a period of 6 months. The blocks were stacked in a normal manner under natural exposure conditions. Carbonation progress was determined by splitting the blocks and spraying the freshly exposed surface with a phenolphthalein solution at intervals over the test period. It was found that the rate of the carbonation front progression …


Case Studies Of Cavity And External Wall Insulation Retrofitted Under The Irish Home Energy Saving Scheme: Technical Analysis And Occupant Perspectives, Aimee Byrne, Gerard Byrne, Garrett O'Donnell, Anthony Robinson Jan 2016

Case Studies Of Cavity And External Wall Insulation Retrofitted Under The Irish Home Energy Saving Scheme: Technical Analysis And Occupant Perspectives, Aimee Byrne, Gerard Byrne, Garrett O'Donnell, Anthony Robinson

Articles

The residential sector represents 27% of primary energy consumption in Ireland. This paper examines the case study of the Irish government’s national grant scheme to encourage energy efficiency retrofit in private housing. That is the Home Energy Saving (HES) Scheme, later rebranded the Better Energy: Homes (BEH) Scheme. The methodology involved monitoring several homes immediately before and after retrofit alongside discussions with occupants. The examination focused on specific measures commonly introduced through the HES/BEH programme − cavity and external wall insulation. It has been found that a significant decrease in heat loss through the walls was measured in all cases. …


State-Of-The-Art Review Of Cathodic Protection For Reinforced Concrete Structures, Aimee Byrne, Niall Holmes, Brian Norton Jan 2016

State-Of-The-Art Review Of Cathodic Protection For Reinforced Concrete Structures, Aimee Byrne, Niall Holmes, Brian Norton

Articles

Cathodic protection (CP) limits the corrosion of a metal surface by making it the cathode of an electrochemical cell. This can be achieved either by using a more active sacrificial anode to create a driving current, or by using inert anodes and impressing a current onto the cathode surface using an external direct current (DC) source. Impressed current cathodic protection (ICCP) is preferred where widespread protection is required, particularly in reinforced concrete structures. ICCP needs a constant DC power supply that is usually provided through a grid connection or independent generators. This paper presents the currently available CP systems for …


Transient And Quasi-Steady Thermal Behaviour Of A Building Envelope Due To Retrofitted Cavity Wall And Ceiling Insulation, Aimee Byrne, Gerard Byrne, Anna Davies, Anthony Robinson Jan 2013

Transient And Quasi-Steady Thermal Behaviour Of A Building Envelope Due To Retrofitted Cavity Wall And Ceiling Insulation, Aimee Byrne, Gerard Byrne, Anna Davies, Anthony Robinson

Articles

Accurate understanding of the thermal behaviour of building components is essential for predicting heat-ing or cooling needs and facilitates the implementation of more successful energy saving strategies and retrofits. This paper focuses on a specific measure commonly introduced through the residential energy efficiency retrofit programmes in Ireland–insulation. Traditionally, assessments of the performance of building envelopes have been based on assumed thermal resistances of the materials involved, labora-tory tests and computer modelling. The aim of the present work is to investigate the in situ thermal behaviour of a case study building and its components under transient and quasi-steady environmental conditions, comparing …